Germany Claims Migration Numbers Will Drop Back To Near Pre-Crisis Levels This Year

ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP/Getty16 Feb 2016

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government expects 500,000 refugees to come to Germany this year, German newspaper Rheinische Post cited sources from the Federal Labour Office as saying.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told Frank-Juergen Weise, head of both the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and the Federal Labour Office, to prepare for an influx of that size this year, the newspaper said in an advance copy of a report due to be published on Tuesday.

The German Interior Ministry was not immediately available to comment on the report.

Last year some 1.1 million migrants arrived in Germany. German media tend to use the word refugee to refer to both refugees and migrants.